Gary Sobers

Ok to fully appreciate the title I need to give most of you a Cricket 101 lesson,pencils at the ready there may be a test at the end!!!
The highest score you can make in cricket is a six,kind of like a baseball home run,the batsman must hit the ball out over the boundry w/out it touching the ground,still w/ me....good,a bowler gets six balls per over,way back in the late 60s,maybe early 70s Gary Sobers became the first cricketer ever to hit six sixs off an over,I,m not sure if that feat has ever been duplicated I,m not
Wisden{another cricket reference,Wisden is the Cricket bible if you like}but it,s one of those great sporting landmarks................and what has this got to do w/ running you ask?..............well tonite I went six for six in my quest to get my 6x600m repeats all under 1.45...............hence the Gary Sobers reference.
Three weeks ago thanks to having Neil to push me I went 5/6 on my repeats,the funny thing was going into that repeat I was still using 1.50 as my target time,that evening convinced me to drop my target time to 1.45,two weeks ago on a solo mission I went 3/6,last week again flying solo I went 4/6 so when Neil offered to join me tonite I hoped to at least go 5/6.
Conditions were warm when we got under way at 6pm,jesus I did it again,having Neil to push me I opened w/ a brisk 64 second 400m b4 easing up over the closing 200m to clock a 35 sec split,1.39.77,the first thing I did was say sorry to Neil I did not mean to go out that fast but as I told Neil that 64 didn,t phase me,I,ve gotten used to fast opening 400s on my first 600.
Frankly the 66 second 4oom on repeat #2 surprized me too,I knew to ease down on the closing 200m and threw in a 36 second 200m,1.42.32,so far so good.
I wanted 68 second splits at 400m and got one on #3,a 35 second closing 200m put me at 1.43.30,could I hold onto this pace for three more 600s?
68 seconds again followed by a 34 200m,1.42.43, four for four,this is where the wheels fell off last week but tonite I was running evenly where as last week each opening 400m split crept up each repeat.
Neil had pulled up at 500m on repeat #4 and elected to sit out #5,I was confident of getting through this one on my own inside 1.45,another 68 second 400m followed by a 33 second 200m,1.41.04,faster than my last three splits,5/6,did I have it for one more?
At the 200m mark I was feeling heavy legged from the knees down,approaching the 400m mark Neil drew along side me,would I respond or fold?67 seconds at 400m,it was there for the taking if I could dredge up every last ounce of energy I had,again Neil drew along side me w/ 100m to go and again I responded switching to lane 6 so as not to be forced to slow down w/ two runners ahead of me I drove to the line 33 seconds 1.40.23, six for six but unlike Gary Sobers final shot which cleared the boundry I just fell to the track after crossing the finish line.
I owe Neil big time for tonite,having him there period was huge but never more so on that final repeat.
W/my rotation about to take another twist next week due to a Tuesday meet it,ll be Thursday b4 I next take on a 6x600m repeat,Neil won,t be available to help me so I,ll have to try and go six for six alone,I love a challenge and I love going 6/6,bring it on!!!